Vision
The Trottier Family Foundation’s vision is to make a meaningful and positive impact on the world. We believe we can achieve this by promoting science, education, health and the environment.
Mission
Our mission is to support organizations that work towards the advancement of scientific inquiry, the promotion of education, fostering better health, protecting the environment and mitigating climate change.
The Trottier Family Foundation strives to catalyze and scale transformative innovations, create cross sector collaborations, and take risks that others cannot.
Our Approach
We believe that science, the environment, health and education are crucial pillars in building a better world. While the specifics of what we work on evolved over the years, investments in these four areas remain the cornerstone of everything we do and is central to our theory of change.
History
The Trottier Family Foundation is a Montreal-based private Canadian charitable foundation established under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act and Income Tax Act (Canada). The Foundation’s purpose is to provide support to registered charities and qualified donees in the areas of education, science, health, the environment, as well as to community and international organisations.
The Trottier Family Foundation was established in 2000 by Lorne Trottier and Louise Rousselle Trottier. In the first 10 years of its existence, the grants the Foundation made reflected the long-standing interests and commitments of the Trottier Family. These included McGill University, University of Montreal, local hospitals such as the MUHC, CHUM, the Lakeshore General Hospital, the West Island Palliative Care Residence and other partners in the Montreal region. In those early years, the Foundation supported capital campaigns as well infrastructure projects such as university and hospital buildings and medical equipment.
Some of the organizations that received support in the beginning of the Foundation’s history continue to be recipients to this day.
In 2016, The Foundation hired staff to lead the operations of the organization and refocused its efforts to support innovation in the areas of Health, Education, Science and the Environment.
How We Work
The Trottier Family Foundation’s grant making and investment activities are focused on assisting organizations that are working to systematically address the following:
Advancing scientific inquiry and scientific education;
Promoting the importance of education in society, primarily STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math);
Mitigating the threats caused by climate change, particularly with a focus on the transition towards a low carbon economy;
Advancing towards a healthy society;
Incorporating the promotion of science, education, health and the environment in grants made to the Montreal community and internationally.
Our grantmaking approach is a hybrid between arm's length grantmaking and participatory grantmaking. Projects are identified through two ways:
The Foundation accepts grant applications via our online application process. Submitted requests for funding go through our normal grantmaking process.
The Foundation seeks out initiatives and activities to fund. We actively seek out innovative projects where we see gaps and where we feel we can have a meaningful impact. This proactive approach entails collaboration with other foundations as we pursue projects which address pressing needs.
CollaboratioN
With a focus on collaboration and continuous learning, we work closely with other foundations that share similar visions. The Foundation is a member of collaboration networks such as Philanthropic Foundations Canada, Environment Funders Canada, the Clean Economy Fund, and the Peace Network For Social Harmony.
Team
The Foundation is run by a Board of Directors and five full time staff members.
Investments
The Trottier Family Foundation believes that it can have positive social impact not only through the grants it provides to charities but also in how its investments can catalyze social impact. We seek to solve social problems while protecting the environment and earning returns.
As such, the Foundation is seeking to implement an investment policy which will be in line with its broader mission, including through impact investing and divestment from fossil fuels.